Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Amazing Charts May Be SaaS

Jon will have to answer for how they will be offering AC hosted, but in our implementations the files are typically generated in the environment. We outfit the practice with other tools to manage moving local files to the hosted platform "auto-magically".

That is an example of why we have chosen to focused on a managed services approach in supporting a practice.

I like that ha. Auto-magically. People should know that those document scanners won't be very useful without a high upload speed/some sort of file manager. Where the uploads can be queued. I'd imagine people who adopt this service will likely go with UpDox too.

Our baseline offering comes with Updox installed for that reason[and many other reasons].

Indy, at some point you might want to elaborate on this. It will make it clear to people what they should be looking for with a cloud/SaaS provider.

As you old timers around here might remember I'm very old school and a very in "Control and Possession" kind of guy as we like to say in the Hockey Rule Books.... When it comes to very important data that is created in a unique, propriortary like database and system, then I want to remain in control of just about any and all of it and that means I own the program and have a solid copy of it, that I am entitled to make good use of as long as I care to keep a computer with that time periods OS that, that program ran and runs on....

Today a new born joins one of our practices, according to the specifics our your state, you are now on the hook to that child to be able to produce their medical file and chart, 7-8 years after they first hit the age of majority. No offense to Jon or anyone at AC but that is a heck of a long time and a heck of a lot of faith in the concept that your vendor will even be there no less your data Just In Case any of your newest and youngest patients decides to come knocking on your door one day....

And does that mean that anyone using Cloud Based databases on Cloud based programs and systems will need to have a paid relationship with that same vendor (provided they are still there to begin with in 25 years from now... Tick Tock) the entire time from now until "Death Do You Part" might we say???? Instead of simply keeping one nice, revered and well protected laptop or desktop somewhere safe just in case 10 years after your retirement these kids start knocking on your door????

As we discussed here many years ago, 1) the Law is WAY Behind on this and someone has to intervene and level out the requirements on both sides of the equation, and take both sides needs, responsibilities and costs into consideration, Doctors and Vendors, so that this is simply a well worked out, and both sides know what is the deal and what to expect from one another.

2) I think that any vendor worth their salt and trust will always give a cloud customer a working copy of the program to install on any reasonable machine that the average person can have, to then safely and easily take their data with them, if and when the Honeymoon is over... Live and let Live, You go this way and I'll got that way kind of nice split which then speaks to a great honest vendor who has no intent of holding you or your data hostage sometime later in the future anyway....

But it is the hostage, now what do I do now that I am on the hook with a "Cloud" ASP like program and vendor???? Question that almost NO Cloud based purchasing customer considers long or hard enough prior to such a purchase. It is only years later after the glow has worn off the bride and the software stinks now or the price structure is insane or the vendor just got absorbed or went belly up (Like Where the F is your data now???) in the not so free and messed up market of healthcare and federal laws, that such customers start to ask the kind of Pre-Nup questions they should have asked all those years ago....

Give me my nice simple P2P system, my own copy of AC and FAP and leave me the heck alone... Those charts are my wife's property and original creations that she is legally responsible for.... Can't believe I'm typing all of this again so many years later.... The more things change the more they remain the same....

Paul

Good post Paul. Thanks for the kudos on F.A.P. There is a new version now: v4.1.4.1

Release notes:

Gets rid of Thrown Exception error on faxed items to inbox
Adds delete file with right-click on inbox file
Adds move to desktop with right-click on inbox file

Sorry for the hijack.

Paul is right on the money. Megaupload was closed and those 2 major cloud vendors that hold Mega data not responsible for lost. Airline luggage policy like 500.00 per lost item. Others would give you one free year of data theft protection if hackers steal your private data. Meaning, Ac goes to cloud, something happens then you would also receive one free year of unlimited data storage plus an extra provider license for free, how about that. Come down to TX, we have a liability cap policy....

Sad to say, you and I, we are getting obsolete, ... Cloud computing is the future, newer generation does not care much about who is responsible what... remember your old collections of vinyl disc, cartridges, tapes, dvd....kids just buy and download music/video and throw away...solo practices would be no longer around the corners soon enough. Next generation docs just like working bees, data security is no longer their main concern..

Enjoy while you still have your data discs in hand.

Keep in mind that AC is very different from true cloud outfits like Practice Fusion. If you used "AC in the cloud" you would own a copy of the program. You could always keep a copy of the program and your database on your desktop. If the cloud provider or vendor goes belly-up or disappears, you still have your data. In fact, you are no worse (or better) off than the rest of us if AC goes down the tubes, or if Jon B absconds to Fiji with all of his millions.
Another reason to carefully look at your SaaS provider is that you want to make sure this is someone who will not profit off of your data. This is really a topic for another time and place, but each of our AC databases is not worth much on the open market. But put hundreds or thousands of them together, and the data is worth BIG bucks. Practice Fusion does not release details, but they make loads of money by selling "de-identified" data. Maybe that is ok. Maybe. But you want to know that it is going to happen when you sign up for the product.

So one thing I don't understand. All your data is in the cloud (actually this is just a server somewhere about five feet off the ground like our servers). You access it via your browser similarly to RDC or LMI, but not the same. But, (off topic) you could still have 100MB files, because they would stay in the cloud, and you could add to it.

But, it sounds as though you are saying the data syncs. Again, I am asking not stating. I would think you have to choose. Either your data is on the other companies server or it is on your server. I don't see how seeing 20 patients and recording their notes on a server in Kansas will update your EMR here.

By the way, the best way to look at this is online banking.

Bert, you are absolutely correct that there are decisions that you need to make even if you are "in the cloud". If I understand correctly AC is going to offer a 'vanilla' hosting, whereas if you want a more DR (Disaster Recovery) configuration, or any other configurations, software, customizations, etc, you should seek out another Hosting Provider, say us for example. From our perspective, we're uncomfortable having only one location for the data.

We see this as a more holistic consideration; how are you practicing medicine, what are the logistics of your location[s], what is your appetite for technology, what are your financial constraints, how do you want to be practicing medicine in 1,3,5 years? Based on a conversation, we are going to craft a solution that fits the Doc and how they want to practice. Hosting, or some customization of that may be part of that solution, it depends on several factors.

I realize that there are other questions in the thread that need answering, so I'll circle around to those later.

Indy's replies here carry a lot more weight than mine, but since I think you are responding to something that I said, I decided to reply. Of course there are lots of ways of doing this and I am only basing my conception of it based on Jon B's history and recent statements. This is conjecture. Jon B describes the cost of his cloud service as "on top of" your cost of AC. I take that to mean that you own a copy of AC, including your database. If you chose to keep a copy of that on your desktop, you could do so. I would not presume that the cloud version syncs with the one on your desktop; but I would think that if you choose to part ways with AC, you could ask for, and receive, a copy of your data. That is far different than Practice Fusion, for example, where if they go under or otherwise don't want to deal with you, you are SOL.

When do you anticipate the cloud based version will be offered to practices? Do you think the end of this year maybe or next year some time?

Leah,

My understanding is that it is in testing, and will be available soon, my guess is within a few months.

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to mention that we are still looking for a few practices interested in beta testing for Amazing Charts in the Cloud. During the first 28 days the trial is free. After that the pricing will be as Jon posted earlier. Anyone with questions or an interest please email me at Claire@amazingcharts.com.

Thanks eveyone

Claire

I like having my data in my office because I live in rural Texas where Internet is great 95% of the time. However, when I am off site on Log mein it is much slower then being at my office. I would like to be able write progress notes at the nursing home and hospital with the speed I do in my office. I have tried syncing my laptop to take off site but that was a nightmare(at least 1.5 yrs ago it was). I am wondering if there would be a way to house my data in my office but sync with a cloud version daily or weekly so i could operate off site with more speed then log mein. Then i would only use the cloud version when I am off site and it would not matter if it did not sync instantly.

That's the thing about hosted services. You need a reliable connection as well. T1s start at 300. Either that or they come up with some hybrid solution that lets you host a server onsite in case of emergency. That's require constant synchronization.

For those of you on hosted service, how are imported items handled?